Legal Battle: Blizzard vs Valve
Round 1 . . . FIGHT!

I am a Lie

Posts:6,879

Publicly, Blizzard has kept pretty quiet while Valve has been using the "Dota" name in announcements on their upcoming game Dota 2. What we didn't know is that Blizzard has already taken legal action against Valve for trying to trademark the name "Dota". Blizzard seems to have a valid argument, stating that the "Dota" (which stands for Defence of the Ancients) name has long been associated with the Blizzard and Warcraft name.

Quote

In contrast to Blizzard, Applicant Valve Corporation ("Valve") has never used the mark DOTA in connection with any product or service that currently is available to the public. By attempting to register the mark DOTA, Valve seeks to appropriate the more than seven years of goodwill that Blizzard has developed in the mark DOTA and in
its Warcraft III computer game and take for itself a name that has come to signify the product of years of time and energy expended by Blizzard and by fans of Warcraft III. Valve has no right to the registration it seeks. If such registration is issued, it not only will damage Blizzard, but also the legions of Blizzard fans that have worked for years
with Blizzard and its products, including by causing consumers to falsely believe that Valve's products are affiliated, sponsored or endorsed by Blizzard and are related or connected to Warcraft III.

Since Blizzard is taking legal action for Valve trying to trademark DOTA (and "Defense of the Ancients", and "DotA", and "Dota"), they should just stick with "Defense of the Ancients".

Hupsakee!

Posts:20,772

You know what would be a better use of time and money than this court case?

ANYTHING, including the following:
- Funding Psychonauts 2
- Lighting stacks of bills on fire
- Building a rocketship
- Lining every lawyer's house with asbestos
- Buying new trousers for Pat Garratt
- Buying heroin and injecting it into a hooker
- Resurrecting Hitler and putting him in charge of the UN

Dark Souls GOTY

Posts:4,038

<Brumisator> dr matta is starting to act more and mor like the retarded part of gui's brain when he posts[HLF]GUI: Seeing your name in red brings nothing but shadows to my dark soul. you will ruin this site. humanity. will burn. EatChildren: oh god not dr matta what have we done

Your God, Lord, and Master

Posts:7,821

Personally, I think Eul or whatever his name is should get the rights to the name since he initially created it, then, since he works for Valve now, he can give/sell the rights to them. Or keep them and add royalties to his salary...

Poison Piealicious

Posts:4,133

I get where Blizzard are coming from and it did always seemed somewhat odd that they didn't just pick a new name (though the name obviously carries some weight).
On the other hand they have one of those who worked on the original mod on board and that gives Valve some credence to their claim.

Then again it seems not everyone who worked on the mod was all that happy with it being named DOTA2 as well, so I guess that takes precedence (for me) over Blizzards claim.